MIDDLETOWN >> Students, parents, education administrators and local and state officials sat down with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro Monday to discuss a pending interest hike in federally subsidized student loans.

Subsidized Stafford Loans, which gather interest at the rate of 3.4 percent, will begin to bear interest at 6.8 percent when a piece of legislation enacted in 2007 expires on July 1. Originally scheduled for expiration in 2012, Congress extended the action by one year, and DeLauro and others in Congress are pushing for another two-year extension, she said Monday.

But, said DeLauro, the faction pushing for the extension--which she credits to the leadership of her fellow Connecticut Democrat, Congressman Joe Courtney--is facing an opposing majority, and if the rates go up, the average impact is going to hit students in loan payback to the tune of $1,000 apiece.

This comes as bad news to Alicia Waldner, a Middletown High School grad who's already working three jobs--two restaurant gigs and a retail job--to pay down her enrollment at Southern Connecticut State University.

"Every day I'm constantly working," said Waldner. "I'm going to work after this."

She said she really wanted to go to Bentley University and eventually go into advertising and marketing--but for now, at least, she had to hold off.

"I'm working, so that's affecting my schoolwork," said Briana Cavalier, another MHS grad, who is taking classes at the University of Connecticut's Hartford Regional Campus. "If you don't have these certain grades, certain averages, you don't get as much money from the school."

Fewer scholarship and aid opportunities translate into more side jobs and snowballing responsibilities, feeding the cycle of declining academic performance.

And even if students can figure out a way to pay off tuition--or at least stay afloat while enrolled--they look toward graduation with trepidation.

"What if I don't get a job?" said Cavalier. "Will I get a job when I graduate? We don't know."

"I picked up a job my sophomore year [of high school] to save up," said Russhane Bowerise, a student at Central Connecticut State University. "How are we supposed to succeed in life if we can't even afford a college education?"

He said that students who were confined to working night jobs or commuting to campus in order to save money by living with family were getting short-changed in terms of what they were getting out of college.

William Ezell, who is going to school out of state at the University of Arizona, said his father--who had to drop out of college after three years to support ailing family members--"worked all his life to get me where I am in life," but the prospect of having to take out loans to continue at school was looming nearer.

State Reps. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, and Mary Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, sat in on the roundtable, as did Middletown Mayor Dan Drew.

"Banks are able to borrow money from the federal government at almost no cost," said Lesser, saying that it was unreasonable that students were forced to pay drastically higher interest rates. "People see community college as the only affordable option left."

"This is the lynchpin, this is the backbone of the American middle class," said Drew. "Without a college education, there is no way we are going to be able to compete on a world stage."

Sean Martin, Wesleyan University's assistant director of financial aid, said he tries to get students actively involved in planning for the financial inevitabilities of attending the private university. "It's a staggering amount of debt to be staring down four, five, six years from now," said Martin. "The majority of students will just take the debt and kick the can down the road."

Adrienne Maslin, dean of students at Middlesex Community College, said that any hike in interest rates would have a "chilling effect" on students who are already dubious on the prospect of higher education.

"It's a deterrent to the student, it's a deterrent to the college," said Maslin. "Our students are always concerned about financial aid and their ability to pay for school."

The interest rate hikes are pending in tandem with constantly rising tuition--rates have quadrupled since the 1980s--so interest will accrue at a higher rate against bigger loans.

DeLauro said that quick action is necessary to eke out another extension on the rate cut.

"It's got to come from students, it's got to come from parents, and it's got to come from administrators," said the congresswoman.

She denounced opponents in Congress as hypocritical for refusing to raise taxes while willingly increasing federal revenue from student loan interest.

Congress will have to enact an extension before its August recess for the rate increase not to affect students in the fall semester.